FOUR-O'CLOCK— FOWL 289 



perhaps it will eventually shew that nearly all were.^ It is also 

 worth remembering that it was during these epochs that the Ratitse 

 (just as the Marsupials among Mammals) were represented in the 

 European Fauna. In the Cretaceous period we come to Birds 

 differing very widely from existing forms, and apparently indicat- 

 ing distinct Ordinal groups, while the two known Jurassic specimens 

 clearly belong to a distinct Subclass — Saurur^. 



ElCHARD LyDEKKER. 



FOUR-O'CLOCK, one of several names given in Australia to 

 Philemon corniculatus (Friar-bird). 



FOWL (Danish Fugl, German Vogel), originally used in the 

 sense that Bird now is, but, except in composition — as Sea-Fowl, 

 Wild-Fowl, and the like — practically almost confined ^ at present 

 to designate the otherwise nameless species which struts on our 

 dunghills, gathers round our barn-doors, and stocks our poultry- 

 yards — the type of the genus Galliis of ornithologists, of which 

 four well-marked species are known. The first of these is the Eed 

 Jungle-Fowl of the greater part of India, G. ferrugineus — called by 

 many writers G. bankwa — which is almost undoubtedly the parent 

 stock of all the domestic races (c/. Darwin, Animals and Plants 

 tinder Domestication, i. pp. 233-246). It inhabits Northern India 

 from Sindh to Burma and Cochin China, as well as the Malay 

 Peninsula and many of the islands as far as Timor, besides the 

 Philippines. It occurs on the Himalayas up to the height of 

 4000 feet, and its southern limits in the west of India proper are, 

 according to Jerdon, found on the Raj-pee pla hill s to the south of 

 the Nerbudda, and in the east near the left bank of the Godavery, 

 or perhaps even further, as he had heard of its being killed at 

 Cummum. This species greatly resembles in plumage Avhat is 

 commonly known among poultry -fanciers as the " Black-breasted 

 Game " breed, and this is said to be especially the case with 

 examples from the Malay countries, between which and examples 

 from India some dift'erences are observable — the latter having the 

 plumage less red, the ear-lappets almost invariably white, and 

 slate-coloured legs, while in the former the ear-lappets are crimson, 

 like the comb and wattles, and the legs yello-\vish. If the Malayan 

 birds be considered distinct, it is to them that the name G. bankiva 

 properly applies. This species is said to be found in lofty forests 

 and in dense thickets, as well as in ordinary bamboo-jungles, and 

 when cultivated land is near its haunts, it may be seen in the fields 



^ The graphic representations given by Professor Fiirbringer in his great 

 ■work, Untersuchungen zur MorpJiologie und Systematik der Vogel (plates xxix. a 

 and B, XXX.), make this very clear to the eye. — A. N. 



^ Like Deer (Danish Dyr, German Thier). Beast, too, with some men has 

 almost attained as much specialization. 



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